Nahum 2:4

4 In ways they be troubled together, carts of four horses be hurtled together in streets; the sight of them as lamps, as lightnings running about. (On the ways they make the people altogether troubled, or full of fear, yea, carts with four horses hurtle through the streets; they look like lamps, like lightning running about.)

Nahum 2:4 Meaning and Commentary

Nahum 2:4

The chariots shall rage in the streets
In the streets of Nineveh when taken; where they shall be drove in a furious manner from place to place, the men in them breathing out slaughter and death wherever they came. Kimchi understands this of the chariots of the Ninevites; who shall drive about in them in the streets of the city like madmen; not daring to go out to fight the enemy, being mightier and more numerous than they. They shall justle one against another in the broad ways;
because of their numbers, and the haste they shall make to spoil and plunder the city; or the Ninevites shall justle one against another, in their hurry and confusion to make their escape. They shall seem like torches;
either the chariots of the Medes and Chaldeans, for the reasons given in the preceding verse ( Nahum 2:3 ) ; or they themselves, because of their fierceness and cruelty; or the faces of the Ninevites, being covered with shame, so Kimchi; see ( Isaiah 13:8 ) . They shall run like the lightnings;
exceeding swiftly, with irresistible force and power; the above writer interprets this of the Ninevites also, running from one end of their city to the other in the utmost confusion, not knowing what to do; but the whole of these two verses ( Nahum 2:3 Nahum 2:4 ) seem to be a description of their enemies.

Nahum 2:4 In-Context

2 For as the Lord yielded the pride of Jacob, so the pride of Israel; for destroyers scattered them, and destroyed the generations of them. (For the Lord shall restore the pride of Jacob, and the pride of Israel; for the destroyers scattered them, and destroyed their generations, or their descendants.)
3 The shield(s) of strong men of him be fiery, men of the host be in red clothes; reins of fire of [the] chariot(s), in the day of his making ready; and the leaders thereof be asleep. (The shields of their strong men be painted fiery red, the men in their army be clothed in red clothes; the reins of the chariots flash like fire, on the day of their preparation for battle; and their leaders be on alert.)
4 In ways they be troubled together, carts of four horses be hurtled together in streets; the sight of them as lamps, as lightnings running about. (On the ways they make the people altogether troubled, or full of fear, yea, carts with four horses hurtle through the streets; they look like lamps, like lightning running about.)
5 He shall bethink of his strong men, they shall fall in their ways; and swiftly they shall go up on the walls thereof, and [the] shadowing place shall be made ready. (They shall call out their strong men, and they shall stumble as they hastily make their way forward; but they shall go up swiftly on the walls, and prepare the battering-rams for the siege.)
6 Gates of floods be opened, and the temple is broken down to [the] earth. (The gates by the river be opened, and the palace is broken into, and falleth down to the ground.)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.